Next step in the fairy house process is to measure everything one more (at least) time before cutting the window holes and completing the wiring.

When measuring the location for your windows and lights, keep in mind that the wall and floor plaster thickness will be around 1/4" - 3/8" per surface. So, windows will actually appear lower once the floor is in place...

Carefully wire the second floor very firmly to the sides of the house. It's worthwhile to keep checking that you're as level as possible. It's really not great when furniture wobbles on an unlevel floor!

Standard height of the bottom of a window is about 3' so I sized 3" for our 1:12 scale (plus added allowance for floor plaster height)

Use wire to hold windows in place and determine perfect location.

Mark perimeter of window using a bright sharpie marker or paint pen on the exterior side of the tree trunk. I marked my wire with a black sharpie (all I could find LOL) and it doesn't appear clearly in the pic below. Use wire cutters to snip opening for window.

Windows will hold in place easily now that wire is trimmed. It's helpful to keep the windows in place throughout the tree design.

Next task - interior lighting... Mark location for each light with a piece of masking tape.

I recommend using electrical tape underneath all electrical wires to protect the wire from the sharp steel.

As long as you connect red to red wires and black to black wires (plus protect the wire from sharp steel using electrical tape), you can't go wrong with lighting. I'm wiring the interior on one switch and the tree will have a separate switch.

Once all lights are in their final location, attach the switch and battery and test lights before spending any more time on lighting. If a light isn't working, now's the time to replace it and get all lights working properly before securing the wires and connections further...

The lights work!

Next, make sure all connections are super tight. Then, place a rubber miniature electrical sleeve on each connection (melt with lighter, lick your thumb and finger and press to cool and smush the sleeve).

At this point, all lighting is held in place with tape and that's fine. I'll finalize the lights and switch placement later.

Now that the interior lights are all in place, I'm ready to start designing and building the bonsai tree. I want to make sure that the cherry blossoms can be seen from inside (through the curtained window). I will sculpt the tree first with paper and tape and some wire, as needed, just to define main structure outline.

I plan to keep the limbs close to the house for structural integrity. Also, after building the tree from paper, I will run steel throughout the limbs...

Still lots more sculpturing to do! Next time: forming the tree and building its steel armature.